COPYRIGHT NOTICE
.COPYRGT.Copyright 1997, Ronald S. Hollister and William T. Schellhammer, IV All rights reserved. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owners have no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the USPTO patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the flow and measuring the pressure of fluids.
2. Problem to be Solved
Typically, many commercial, industrial and public buildings have a plurality of water sources wherein each water source is located at a different location within the building. Such water sources provide water for use in suppressing fires. These water sources are typically configured as standpipes having a control valve and a fluid outlet adapted for fluid connection to a fire hose. During a fire, proper control of water pressure at each of these water sources is vital to the operation of all fire hoses used on a particular floor of a building, as well as the operation of fire hoses being used on other floors of the building. The failure to maintain proper flow control at each water source may have tragic consequences to life, as was evident in a recent Philadelphia fire where several firemen died, as well as property. Therefore, it is highly critical that fire fighting personnel be able to control the fluid flow at each standpipe when multiple fire hoses are utilized.
One conventional method of indicating the water pressure available at a particular water source is to color code the pressure reducing valves that are connected to the standpipes. For example, each color represents a particular water pressure. However, color coding of each pressure reducing valve does not accurately indicate the available water pressure at a typical standpipe at any given time. It is not possible for the aforementioned color-coding system to indicate sudden and drastic increases or decreases in water pressure.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can be fluidly connected to a fluid source to control the flow and measure the pressure of fluid at the fluid source.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can be fluidly connected to a fluid source to control the flow and measure the pressure of fluid at the fluid source wherein the apparatus is portable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable apparatus that can be fluidly connected to a fluid source to control the flow and measure the pressure of fluid at the fluid source that is easy to use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable apparatus that can be fluidly connected to a fluid source to control the flow and measure the pressure of fluid at the fluid source and which allows fire fighting personnel to have substantially total control in controlling the flow of fluid flowing from the fluid source.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a portable apparatus that can be fluidly connected to a fluid source to control the flow and measure the pressure of fluid at the fluid source that is inexpensive to manufacture.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawing.